Over 10 million Nigerians have benefited from the campaign to digitally equip vulnerable groups and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) with the knowledge and skills to identify, protect, detect, defend and respond to COVID-19 instigated cyber threats, enabling a safe digital community.
The organisers of the campaign, Cybersafe Foundation, a non-governmental organisation in the information security ecosystem in Nigeria, and its partners the Foreign Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) signed a grant with the UK Government on 7 September 2020, through its Prosperity Fund Digital Access Programme. The grant will see CyberSafe Foundation champion the ‘Safe Digital Community during COVID-19 Project as part of the UK’s mitigation support to Nigeria’s COVID-19 response.
Nigeria is currently battling the impact of the COVID-19 on its economy which has been pushed into a recession. Since the Safe Digital Community project kicked off, 1,504 SMEs across 35 states in Nigeria have been direct beneficiaries. 40.7 percent of the SMEs are female-owned. It has also upskilled 3,057 employees in cyber safety essentials.
Confidence Staveley, executive director, CyberSafe Foundation said that through the ‘No Go Fall Maga,’ cyber awareness comedy skits, more than 3.3 million people were educated on vishing, multi-factor authentication, and phishing. For the digitally vulnerable groups including people with limited digital experience, the project helped raise their awareness in safe cyber hygiene, enhance their online security and enable a safer digital community, reaching over 10 million people.
The beneficiaries cut across computing, technology, real estate, transport and services, oil and gas, retail and manufacturing, fashion, hospitality and leisure, healthcare, charity and NGO, education, consulting, financial services, amongst others.
“The impact has been massive and we are prepared to sustain the tempo even in 2021. We are going to increase the number of SMEs by 100 percent; in other words, we are targeting 3,000 SMEs in this rerun and we continue to use social media and radio to drive cybersecurity awareness. We are calling for SMEs to join the new batch for training,” Steveley said.
Prior to the training, 57 percent of the beneficiaries could not identify a phishing email. After the training, 83 percent of them now understand prevalent attack vectors and preventive measures. 76 percent of them have now implemented one or more security controls.
“This project demonstrates the UK Government’s continued support for Nigeria and its digital sector, recognising the tech ecosystem’s role in inclusive growth and development,” Idongesit Udoh, the UK Government’s head of Digital Access Programme and Country Adviser. “A rerun of this project will sustain the huge impact recorded by the CSF on cyber awareness and extend cyber capacity building to more SMEs across the country during this pandemic where there is increased cyber risk for small businesses.”
